Teresita C. Schaffer

Former Brookings Expert

Teresita C. Schaffer is an expert on economic, political, security, and risk management trends in India and Pakistan, as well as on the region that extends from Afghanistan through Bangladesh. She also serves as a senior adviser to McLarty Associates, a Washington-based international strategic advisory firm.

In her 30-year career in the U.S. Foreign Service, Schaffer was recognized as one of the State Department’s leading experts on South Asia, where she spent a total of 11 years. Her other career focus was on international economic issues. She served in U.S. embassies in Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh, and from 1992 to 1995 as U.S. ambassador in Sri Lanka. During her assignments in the State Department in Washington, she was director of the Office of International Trade and later deputy assistant secretary of state for the Near East and South Asia, at that time the senior South Asia policy position in the State Department. She created a South Asia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and directed it from 1998 to 2010.

Schaffer's book "How Pakistan Negotiates with the United States: Riding the Roller Coaster," which she co-wrote with her husband, Howard B. Schaffer, was published in 2011. She is also the author of "India and the U.S. in the 21st Century: Reinventing Partnership," widely recognized as the leading work on the post-2000 U.S.-India relationship and its future prospects, published in 2009. Earlier writings included "Pakistan’s Future and U.S. Policy Options" (2004); "India at the Crossroads: Confronting the Challenge of HIV/AIDS" (2004) and a series of other studies on HIV and public health issues in India; and two studies on women in development in Bangladesh (1985).

Schaffer is a trustee of the Asia Foundation, and serves on the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Diplomacy. She received a bachelor's from Bryn Mawr College and studied at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Paris. She did graduate work in economics at Georgetown University. She speaks Hindi, Urdu, French, Swedish, German, and Italian, and she has studied Bangla and Sinhala.

Teresita C. Schaffer is an expert on economic, political, security, and risk management trends in India and Pakistan, as well as on the region that extends from Afghanistan through Bangladesh. She also serves as a senior adviser to McLarty Associates, a Washington-based international strategic advisory firm.

In her 30-year career in the U.S. Foreign Service, Schaffer was recognized as one of the State Department’s leading experts on South Asia, where she spent a total of 11 years. Her other career focus was on international economic issues. She served in U.S. embassies in Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh, and from 1992 to 1995 as U.S. ambassador in Sri Lanka. During her assignments in the State Department in Washington, she was director of the Office of International Trade and later deputy assistant secretary of state for the Near East and South Asia, at that time the senior South Asia policy position in the State Department. She created a South Asia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and directed it from 1998 to 2010.

Schaffer’s book “How Pakistan Negotiates with the United States: Riding the Roller Coaster,” which she co-wrote with her husband, Howard B. Schaffer, was published in 2011. She is also the author of “India and the U.S. in the 21st Century: Reinventing Partnership,” widely recognized as the leading work on the post-2000 U.S.-India relationship and its future prospects, published in 2009. Earlier writings included “Pakistan’s Future and U.S. Policy Options” (2004); “India at the Crossroads: Confronting the Challenge of HIV/AIDS” (2004) and a series of other studies on HIV and public health issues in India; and two studies on women in development in Bangladesh (1985).

Schaffer is a trustee of the Asia Foundation, and serves on the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Diplomacy. She received a bachelor’s from Bryn Mawr College and studied at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Paris. She did graduate work in economics at Georgetown University. She speaks Hindi, Urdu, French, Swedish, German, and Italian, and she has studied Bangla and Sinhala.